Jul

Summer party and a Goodbye!

On Friday, June 30 all the boys living in Ballabio organized an ethnic dinner to celebrate the end of the scholastic year and the beginning of summer lessons and, also, to say goodbye to Pem, their operator, who in going to work to another camp.

With the help and the enthusiasm of Alessia, the teacher, they created a menu which in the result of the mix between Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia: fried platano, banana pancales, attiéké with fried chicken, beans and spicy sauce, chapati with Pakistan chicken, mixed salad and fruit salad.
Morover, the prepared two typical Cameroonian cocktails: the ginger, composed by pineapple juice and ginger and hibiscus juice, produced by hibiscus flowers with the addition of spices, in our casa the mint.

The culinary tradition of West Africa, from which the majority of people hosted in Ballabio comes from, is based on few elemnts like manioc, millet and spices and on the use of sauces which are more or less hot according to the countries. In Ivory Coast, during a party, it is fundamental for a satisfying meal to serve attiéké. It’s based on manioc, which pulp is grated. It is commonly known as the couscous.

Chapati, instead, is the most common Pakistan bread which is made from whole wheat. It is thin and not risen. During the party, it was served with a delicius spicy chicken cooked with onions and peppers.

The boys worked very hard to cook, to prepare the dinner room and to clean the whole building to make all the guests have a beautiful experience of intercultural life. Pem and his wife followed the preparation of banana pancakes and they provided also a gluten free version. Nelson, Paul and Shafique oversaw the frying; Cheick and Sekou were responsible for attiéké; Ul hassan and Danish for chapati; Christian and Cheick prepared salad and fruit salad. Tinty, Moussa, Mamadou and Mory did the cleaning and the set up.